Navigate:

Meek giving away contributions

Text Size

-

+

reset

Rep. Kendrick B. Meek (D-Fla.) told The Politico he intends to donate to charity $5,500 in campaign contributions linked to the Boston developer of a troubled project in his Miami district boosted by Meek and his mother, a former congresswoman.

The $5,500 is peanuts for Meek, who raised more than $1 million for his lightly contested 2006 reelection campaign. And he denied that the $5,500 in contributions influenced his actions in any way. But his decision to give away the cash demonstrates Meek’s concerns about his connections to the project and to Dennis Stackhouse of Boston, who along with his wife accounted for $5,000 of the sum.

Meek’s decision to donate the money comes in the wake of local media reports questioning the financing and stewardship of the project.

Meek had secured more than $1 million — and sought an additional $3.5 million — in federal funds for the project, which hoped to attract big drug companies and research institutions to a government-subsidized industrial park in an impoverished neighborhood in his district.

But this week, Meek sent a letter asking local officials to stop spending federal money on the project and to try to recoup “any funds improperly expended.” His letter was prompted by an investigation by the Miami Herald that found that Stackhouse had diverted more than $500,000 in public funds intended for the park.

The Herald reported Stackhouse had a checkered business history and lacked the financing to pull off the Miami project, but that a quasi-public local agency had given his company control of 15 acres for the park and millions of dollars to jump-start the project — with few checks and balances.

The newspaper also revealed that one of Stackhouse’s companies paid Meek’s mother, Carrie Meek, who held the congressional seat before her son’s election in 2002, at least $40,000 and use of a Cadillac Escalade luxury SUV for consulting on the project and lending her name to it.

The Herald additionally reported that Stackhouse provided Carrie Meek free office space in a building he owned in nearby Opa-locka for which he received a $2.2 million loan from a local antipoverty task force chaired by Kendrick Meek. That was for a separate project from the bio-pharmaceutical park.

Stackhouse did not return a telephone message left by The Politico.

In a statement to The Politico, Rep. Meek said his mother never lobbied him for federal funds. He emphasized that the money he secured was not for any given developer but rather was “intended to spur public-private investment at Poinciana Industrial Park.

“In this distressed urban community, it is vital that these hard-to-come-by funds remain available for redevelopment of the park by a new developer and are not diverted elsewhere,” he said in the statement.

Meek said he did not solicit the donations from Stackhouse or his wife, each of whom contributed $2,500 in 2003, according to a Politico search of Federal Election Commission records. Nor did he ask for a $500 contribution in 2004 — while Stackhouse was negotiating a deal with the quasi-public agency — from Richard Gallitto.

Gallitto is executive director of a Boston investment firm that would eventually loan Stackhouse $4.2 million, accepting the public park land as collateral for the loan.

In his statement to The Politico, Meek said he is in the process of selecting nonprofit organizations to be given the $5,500 he received from the Stackhouses and Gallitto. He said he met them “sometime in 2003” — the year Stackhouse first pitched the project — but did not answer a follow-up question about whether they discussed the project.

When making contributions to other candidates in 2002 and 2003, Stackhouse indicated he was an employee of Gallitto’s firm, Tremont Realty Capital. But Gallitto told The Politico in an e-mail that Stackhouse never worked for Tremont or any of its affiliates.

Asked why he contributed to Meek, Gallitto said only: “I made a one-time contribution to Rep. Meek, as I have to many other political campaigns.”

In fact, according to FEC records aggregated by the Center for Responsive Politics, Gallitto has made only two other contributions to federal campaigns since 2002: $500 to Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) and $250 to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).

Politicians sure clean up on anti poverty programs.This is no different that Edwards using his poverty center to fund his own personal travel and other perks.These anti poverty centers are a rich excuse for earmarks. I mean who can be against getting rid of poverty. The problem is they are all band aids to cover up the root cause which is the welfare system.

DEMOCRATIC FRAUD, REAL ESTATE, PROPERTY FRAUD, BIG MONEY.WE HAVE A JEWISH FRIEND IN CHARGED OF THE DETROIT ZOO IS NAME IS RON KAGAN, MR KAGAN LIED ON IS APPLICATION FALSIFYING RESUME, THIS MAN IS CHARGED OF MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF PUBLIC FUNDS? IN MICHIGAN IT JUST SEEMS TO BE A JEW IN CHARGED OF EVERYTHING.WHEN A PERSON LIES THIS PERSON SHOULD BE FLAT OUT FIRED. ESPECIALLY WHEN PUBLIC FUNDS ARE INVOLVED. MONEY MONEY OUR JEWISH FRIENDS?CONTROL THE COURTS CONTROL HOSPITALS, JEWISH PERSON IN CHARGED AT OUR AIR PORTS? WHEN YOU HAVE A PATTERN OF SOMETHING IT SEEMS THE WORD SYNDICATE JUST KEEPS POPPING UP? WHEN YOU HAVE 280 MILLION AMERICANS AND I THINK FROM WHAT I HAVE HEARD SIX MILLION JEWISH FRIENDS IN OUR WONDERFUL COUNTRY, BOY OH BOY THEY SURE SEEM TO GET THEIR SELFS IN THE RIGHT PLACES OF AUTHORITY. AUTHORITY, JUDICIAL TENDER, AUTHORITY, ADB,AUTORITY, HOLOCAUST MUSEUM 235 JUDICIAL JUDGES BELONG, WILLIAM J. DANHOLF IN CHARGED, MR DANHOLF ADB. YES SIR JEWISH AUTHORITY GOOD GOOD NEWS FOR OUR JEWISH FRIENDS. WHY EVEN OUR WONDERFUL PRESIDENT BUSH AUTHORITY PUT MR DANHOLF IN CHARGED OF HOLOCAUST MUSEUM. NOW WE HAVE NAFTA CHINA INDIA CANADA, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS OH YES OUR BELOVED DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT BUSH. PUT THE CLUES ALL TOGEATHER MY AMERICAN TAX PAYER FRIENDS WELL WHAT?IF THIS NAFTA DEMOCRATIC GONGRESS WOULD OF PULLED THIS AMNESTY OFF I TELL YOU WHAT WE AS A NATION WOULD OF BEEN THROUGH. NO VOICE NO VOTES NOTHING TO STOP THE NEW WORLD ORDER AT ALL? FACTS DO NOT LIE ONLY THE NEW WORLD ORDER LIES CHEATS CORRUPTS ALL FOR CONTROL OF YOU AND ME? THE WORD IS SYNDICATE SYNDICATE OF CONTROL. WHAT IS SO SO COOL THE PEOPLE OF UNITED STATES GOT A FIRST HAND LOOK AT THE SYNDICATE FOR THEIR SELFS AMNESTY? NOTHING AND I MEAN NOTHING THIS AMNESTY WAS DOING WAS FOR THE GOOD OF OUR PEOPLE OUR NATION, MILLIONS AND MILLIONS GIVEN CITIZENSHIP, COST OUT OF SIGHT, SOCIAL SECURITY GIVEN AWAY, CRIMINALS GIVEN CITIZENSHIP, DISEASE, HEALTH CARE GIVEN, THE COST THE COST OF THIS ALONE SHOULD OF STOP THIS IN ITS TRACK, NO NO STILL TRYED TO PULL THIS MADDNESS OFF ON US ALL. THE WORD IS CONTROL CONTROL A SYNDICATE OF CONTROL. TRUTH IS IN EVERYONES EYES NOW? THANK GOD THANK GOD BECAUSE IF THEY WOULD OF PULLED THIS AMNESTY OFF WE WOULD OF BEEN THROUGH BOOKEN THATS FOR SURE. MICHIGAN LITTLE BIG HORN.

"Meek" - "lesser of two weevils (we-evils?)" Bill or Hillary? This goes to intent and your history >>> and, towards keeping being "American" NATURAL. >>> Didn't we already get the feminine governing style from Bill-Hillary years? What are we to expect from allowing Hillary-Bill years? Just more of the same? America has a "White House" not a "White Office." Republicans are looking much smarter than "the smartest person in the Senate." (A quote still should be removed from Tavis Smiley show intro.)

Ok, Meeky. So that's why you were so coy about possibly supporting Obama! What, he wouldn't play along with you as you were facing investigations? He's smart, that Obama (and clean, articulate, inspirational, and has $55 million reasons not to have to play ball with crooks) What did Hillary promise you? A pardon in 2009?

The highly questionable behavior of Kendrick and Carrie Meek as it relates to the bio-pharmaceutical park debacle speaks volumes about the state of politics in Miami-Dade County and the United States. Again, the citizenry who have the least are victims of politicians who are only interested in lining their own pockets. I was a stanch supporter of the Meeks?. I will certainly reassess my support. Search your soul Kendrick, are you really for the people or is it all a lie? As one of your constituents, I really want to know. Oh, by the way, you really did not know your mother had received perks?